


somewhere my last breath is leaving my body (and i do not feel a thing)

by jcp_sob_rjl_lmep



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, additional auditores that don't speak, au where giovanni lived and ezio didn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28870650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jcp_sob_rjl_lmep/pseuds/jcp_sob_rjl_lmep
Summary: “Where are they? Father?” Claudia rushed to him, looking around as if he were hiding her brothers behind himself. Maria’s eyes met his, and in a moment, Giovanni Auditore da Firenze watched as his wife lost herself, as her eyes blanked and that sharp mind he loved so tucked itself away. “Pappa?”Giovanni looked down at his daughter, his only child, now, and his grief threatened to choke him as Claudia let out a wail, mourning for the brothers she’d lost in a way that he could not. He would slip them out of the city today, take them to Mario at Monteriggioni.Then he would spend the rest of his life reaping what his actions had sowed, and killing every single man that had even a speck of his sons’ blood on their hands.
Relationships: Giovanni Auditore da Firenze/Maria Auditore da Firenze
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	somewhere my last breath is leaving my body (and i do not feel a thing)

“Where are they? Father?” Claudia rushed to him, looking around as if he were hiding her brothers behind himself. Maria’s eyes met his, and in a moment, Giovanni Auditore da Firenze watched as his wife lost herself, as her eyes blanked and that sharp mind he loved so tucked itself away. “Pappa?”

Giovanni looked down at his daughter, his only child, now, and his grief threatened to choke him as Claudia let out a wail, mourning for the brothers she’d lost in a way that he could not. He would slip them out of the city today, take them to Mario at Monteriggioni.

Then he would spend the rest of his life reaping what his actions had sowed, and killing every single man that had even a speck of his sons’ blood on their hands.

* * *

People whispered of the white ghost, how he flitted across rooftops with feet that never made a sound, how every guard he passed died quickly and how the sight of even a flicker of him was the glimpse of Death Itself.

But while the guards were killed swiftly, an almost kind death, his true targets were killed slowly, painfully. Bodies were found hanging, some from buildings, some from rafters; all of them purple in the face, their clothes soiled, panic and agony in their eyes. They died knowing of what they had done, every one of them, and they died with Giovanni Auditore looking them in the eye, refusing to give peace or absolution in their last moments.

His boys had died without peace. Their murderers would do the same.

* * *

When he laid down at night, all Giovanni could see was the last moments his sons had lived. How they had filed to the gallows, Petruccio sandwiched between his ever protective elder brothers, Ezio’s eyes darting around almost desperately for help, Federico filled with a stubborn resolve as the only one of the three who had even an idea of why this was happening.

How Giovanni attempted to push his way to the front of the crowd, his heart already cracked in two, knowing that he could do nothing and yet screaming inside that he had to try. His sons, his boys, he had promised to protect them the first time they had been placed in his arms and he had known his heart to be lost to them.

How they had seen him only moments before the end, how Federico had nodded, resigned to death at twenty years old; how Ezio had calmed at his presence, seventeen years old and knowing that he was going to die, but at peace to be in his father’s company again; how little Petruccio’s eyes had filled with tears, his mouth shaping around “Pappa-” in the split second before the floor had dropped out from beneath him. Thirteen years old was too young to die, and yet he had, the three of them dropping as Giovanni revealed his identity with a grieved roar, massacring the guards around him before the sheer number forced him to flee.

One moment and Giovanni’s family was halved, his sons sent beyond his reach.

He didn’t sleep very often anymore.

* * *

After Mario had expressed his desire to find all of the pages of the Codex, as well as to find the seals and finally reach the armor they had wished for since they were boys, Giovanni kept an eye out for his brother. When he found Codex pages, he left them with Leonardo, the only man he saw regularly anymore. A man closer to the ages of his eldest sons, and he was likely Giovanni’s closest friend, now.

When he had collected enough for his brother, Giovanni would wrap them together and slip into Monteriggioni at nighttime, when no one was likely to see him. He left the packages on Mario’s desk, past the book with Claudia’s handwriting scratched within. When he had an excess of coin, he would leave it by her book, knowing that they would use it better than he.

He never went to see Maria. When he had left her and Claudia with Mario, he had sworn to her that he would not present himself to her again until he had atoned for what his actions had wrought. ~~The sins he would never be able to pay for.~~

Even at night, he could hear her praying quietly, asking the Lord for their boys.

Giovanni had never believed in God. After being forced to sneak in the dark just to give his sons a proper burial, to watch his wife lose her mind in a moment, he prayed as well, to hope the pain of this life would lead to the peace of the next.

His boys, all three of his boys, had been so full of life. Even after seeing them die it was impossible for him to believe that it all could have been extinguished.

* * *

Exactly one year after his sons had been killed, Giovanni stood in front of the corpse of the last man who had been part of the conspiracy.

This had stopped being Assassin business long ago, Giovanni could admit. Whilst the men he had killed were certainly Templars, he had not killed them for that reason. They could have been innocent apart from having killed his sons and he still would have taken them down with a vengeance.

But there were other Templars out there, and those Giovanni could continue to track and kill, in a more traditional way than hanging. His revenge had been taken; perhaps it was time for atonement, now.

The Templar Order would fall to one man, for the simple mistake of killing his sons and leaving him to live in their place.

* * *

That night, tucked away on a boat traveling to his next target’s location, Giovanni dreamed.

Petruccio, strong and tall, fourteen years old and climbing after his brothers, tucking feathers into his doublet as he passed them.

Ezio, taunting and teasing, poking at his brothers in one moment and hugging them the next, eighteen years old and clad in the Assassin white clothes that were his birthright.

Federico, leading his brothers into their trouble, twenty one and his brothers’ stalwart protector as always; his joyful laughter rang out as he leapt from a peak, soaring to the hay waiting below.

His sons as they were meant to be, alive even in death.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay listen, I was thinking about Giovanni again, and somehow that turned into Giovanni and Ezio switching places. Think of all the chaos Ezio brought, and he was a new Assassin. Think of what Giovanni could do, having been trained all his life and also having a clear motive to go after all of these people.  
> If this made you sad, my apologies. I can't promise that I won't write another sad one.  
> Downloads are fine but please don't post this anywhere else without my permission.  
> Feel free to come catch me on [tumblr](https://iwillstaywiththemforever.tumblr.com).  
> Love you all and I will see you later!


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